System for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messaging services

ABSTRACT

A system is described for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messaging services. The system may include a processor, a memory and an interface. The memory may store a content related to a mobile alert service and an advertisement. The content may be provided to a user when an alert condition is met. The interface may be operatively connected to the memory and may communicate with the user. The processor may be operatively connected to the memory and the interface. The processor may receive a request from the user, via the interface, to subscribe to the mobile alert service. The processor may detect when the alert condition is met and generate a mobile message containing the content. The processor may retrieve an advertisement related to the content and may attach the advertisement to the mobile message. The processor may provide the mobile message to the user via the interface.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/776,073, filed on Jul. 11, 2007, which is incorporated by referenceherein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present description relates generally to a system and method,generally referred to as a system, for serving targeted advertisementsover mobile messaging services, and more particularly, but notexclusively, to serving targeted advertisements over short messagingservices (“SMS”).

BACKGROUND

The mobile phone may be increasingly important as an information andcontent access device. Currently there may be twice as many mobilecommunication devices as personal computers. Mobile operators may beincreasingly looking to high value data services as a way to overcomethe continuing voice average revenue per user decline. Billions ofdollars may be being spent globally on wireless licenses with billionsmore in investments in the pipeline for development of infrastructureand services by wireless service and content providers. Carriers may beintroducing new data, content and multimedia services as a means ofgenerating new revenue stream, reversing negative ARPU trends, retainingand attracting customers as well as increasing returns on investment,and extending and differentiating their service offering to consumers.The emergence of these wireless technologies may be creating uniqueopportunities for wireless carriers, advertisers and publishers togenerate additional revenue streams through new and existing customers.As consumer adoption of wireless technology continues to increase,marketing via mobile devices may become an important part of allintegrated data communications strategies.

Mobile messaging services may be developing rapidly throughout theworld. In 2001, there may have been billions of mobile messages sent,and that number may have doubled. Mobile messaging services may bewidely used for delivering digital content, such as news alerts,financial information, ring tones, etc. Mobile messaging may also beused to send messages from one mobile user to another mobile user. Theremay not currently be an advertising solution to reach users of mobilemessaging.

SUMMARY

A system is disclosed for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services. The system may include a processor, a memory and aninterface. The memory may be operatively connected to the processor andthe interface and may store a content related to a mobile alert serviceand an advertisement. The content may be provided to a user when analert condition is met. The interface may be operatively connected tothe memory and may communicate with the user. The processor may beoperatively connected to the memory and the interface. The processor mayreceive a request from the user to subscribe to the mobile alertservice. The processor may detect when the alert condition is met andgenerate a mobile message containing the content. The processor mayretrieve an advertisement related to the content and may attach it tothe mobile message. The processor may provide the mobile message to theuser.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become,apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the followingfigures and detailed description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features and advantages be included withinthis description, be within the scope of the embodiments, and beprotected by the following claims and be defined by the followingclaims. Further aspects and advantages are discussed below inconjunction with the description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The system and/or method may be better understood with reference to thefollowing drawings and description. Non-limiting and non-exhaustivedescriptions are described with reference to the following drawings. Thecomponents in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis insteadbeing placed upon illustrating principles. In the figures, likereferenced numerals may refer to like parts throughout the differentfigures unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a general overview of a system for servingtargeted advertisements over mobile messaging services.

FIG. 2 is block diagram of a simplified view of a network environmentimplementing the system of FIG. 1 or other systems for serving targetedadvertisements over mobile messaging services.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an implementation of the system of FIG. 1or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an implementation for a service provider ofthe system of FIG. 1 or other systems for serving targetedadvertisements over mobile messaging services.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating operations of deliveringadvertisements through user to user mobile messaging in the systems ofFIG. 1, or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operations of communicating anadvertisement to a mobile network operator in the system of FIG. 1, orother systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating operations of delivering anadvertisement through a mobile messaging alert in the system of FIG. 1,or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations of delivering anadvertisement through a third party mobile messaging alert in the systemof FIG. 1, or other systems for serving targeted advertisements overmobile messaging services.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a mobile device displaying a mobile messagewith a targeted advertisement attached by the system of FIG. 1 or othersystems for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a mobile device displaying a mobilemessaging application including a targeted advertisement delivered bythe system of FIG. 1 or other systems for serving targetedadvertisements over mobile messaging services.

FIG. 11 is an illustration a general computer system that may be used ina system for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method, generally referred to as a system, relate toserving targeted advertisements over mobile messaging, and moreparticularly, but not exclusively, to serving targeted advertisementsover SMS messaging. The principles described herein may be embodied inmany different forms.

FIG. 1 provides a general overview of a system 100 for serving targetedadvertisements over mobile messaging services. Not all of the depictedcomponents may be required, however, and some implementations mayinclude additional components. Variations in the arrangement and type ofthe components may be made without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe claims as set forth herein. Additional, different or fewercomponents may be provided.

The system 100 may include one or more revenue generators 110A-N, suchas mobile advertisers, a service provider 130, such as a portal, one ormore mobile network operators (“MNOs”) 115A-N, more commonly referred toas mobile carriers, or simply carriers, and one or more users 120AA-NN,such as mobile subscribers or consumers. The service provider 130 mayimplement an advertising campaign management system incorporating anauction based and/or non-auction based advertisement serving system.

The revenue generators 110A-N may pay the service provider 130 to serve,or display, advertisements of their goods or services, such as on-lineadvertisements, to the users 120AA-NN, such as over mobile messaging,mobile web, the Internet, or generally any venue for displayingadvertisements. The advertisements may include sponsored listings,banners ads, popup advertisements, or generally any way of attractingthe users 120AA-NN to the web site or mobile site of the revenuegenerators 110A-N. The users 120AA-NN may utilize the services of theservice provider 130 through web applications, mobile applications orstandalone applications.

The service provider 130 may maintain a mobile portal and/or a webportal, such as a search site, where the service provider 130 maydisplay advertisements of the revenue generators 110A-N to the users120AA-NN. In the case of a mobile portal, the service provider 130 mayshare revenue with the mobile network operators MNOs 115A-N of the users120AA-NN for displaying advertisements of the revenue generators 110A-Nvia their mobile networks, on mobile applications running on theirmobile networks or as a part of a mobile message sent through theirmobile network. Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130may share revenue with individual publishers for displayingadvertisements of the revenue generators 110A-N on their mobile and/orweb sites. The service provider 130 may supply and API to the MNOs115A-N enabling the MNOs 115A-N to request advertisements from theservice provider 130.

The MNOs 115A-N may provide a mobile network to the users 120AA-NN whichmay provide a variety of services to the users 120AA-NN, such as theability to send and receive phone calls, send and receive mobilemessages, to access the internet and/or the mobile web, or generally anyservice that may be implemented on a mobile device. The MNOs 115A-N maystore data describing the users 120AA-NN, such as billing addresses,call histories, messaging histories, or generally any data regarding theusers 120AA-NN that may be available to the MNOs 115A-N.

The service provider 130 may also provide a mobile alert service. Themobile alert service may allow the users 120AA-NN to receive informationon their mobile devices over mobile messaging, such as news, stockprices, cricket scores, or generally any information the users 120AA-NNmay wish to receive on their mobile device. The service provider 130 mayinclude advertisements of the revenue generators 110A-N within themobile alerts. The service provider 130 may also communicateadvertisements to the MNOs 115A-N to display with mobile messages routedthrough their mobile networks or within mobile applications running onmobile devices on their mobile networks.

The amount the revenue generators 110A-N may pay the service provider130 may be based on one or more factors. These factors may includeimpressions, click throughs, conversions, and/or generally any metricrelating to the advertisement and/or the behavior of the users 120AA-NN.The impressions may refer to the number of times an advertisement mayhave been displayed to the users 120AA-NN. The click throughs may referto the number of times the users 120AA-NN may have clicked through anadvertisement to a web site, mobile web site or mobile landing page ofone of the revenue generators 110A-N, such as the revenue generator A110A. The conversions may refer to the number of times a desired actionwas taken by the users 120AA-NN after clicking though to a web site ofthe revenue generator A 110A. The desired actions may include submittinga sales lead, making a purchase, viewing a key page of the site,downloading a whitepaper, and/or any other measurable action. If thedesired action is making a purchase, then the revenue generator A 110Amay pay the service provider 130 a percentage of the purchase.

The users 120AA-NN may be mobile users who may engage in mobilemessaging with one another, such as through a short message service(“SMS”), a multimedia messaging service (“MMS”), enhanced messagingservice (“EMS”), J-PHONE's Skymail, NTT DOCOMO'S Short Mail, orgenerally any service for sending messages to/from mobile devices. Themobile messages may be routed through the MNOs 115A-N. The MNOs 115A-Nmay request advertisements from the service provider 130 to attach tothe mobile messages of the users 120AA-NN. For example, the user AA120AA may wish to send a mobile message to the user AB 120AB. Themessage may first be routed from the user AA 120AA to the MNO A 115A.The MNO A 115A may then forward the message to the MNO B 115B. The MNO B115B may receive the message, and then, before forwarding the message tothe user AB 120AB, the MNO B 115B may request a targeted advertisementof one of the revenue generators 110A-N from the service provider 130.The targeted advertisement may be attached to the message, and themessage may then be sent to the user AB 120AB. The service provider 130may share revenue with the MNOs 115A-N for attaching advertisements ofthe revenue generators 110A-N to messages routed through their mobilenetworks.

The users 120AA-NN may also be consumers of goods or services who may besearching for a business, such as the business of one of the revenuegenerators 110A-N. Alternatively or in addition the users 120AA-NN maybe machines or other servers, such as the third party server 250. Theusers 120AA-NN may need a user identifier or identification (“user ID”)to access the services of the service provider 130. In order to obtain auser ID the users 120AA-NN may need to supply information describingthemselves to the service provider 130, such as the location, gender, orage of the users 120AA-NN, or generally any information that may berequired for the users 120AA-NN to utilize the services provided by theservice provider 130. The service provider 130 may collect user behaviordata from the users 120AA-NN when they are logged in, such as queriessearched for by the users 120AA-NN, links clicked on by the users120AA-NN and/or any user interactions with the services provided by theservice provider 130. The service provider 130 may also use cookies,such as a browser cookie, to collect user behavior data of users120AA-NN who are not logged in or who are not otherwise identifiable.

The service provider 130 may serve advertisements to the users 120AA-NN,via mobile messages, relevant to the collected user behavior data. Forexample, if a user AA 120AA performed searches for sports topics,subscribed for sports alerts, or viewed sports related media orarticles, the service provider server 130 may serve a sports related adto the user AA 120AA with the alert. The revenue generators 110A-N mayidentify categories to associate their advertisements with, such assports. Alternatively or in addition, the service provider server 130may perform content matching on the advertisements of the revenuegenerators 110A-N and identified interests of the user AA 120AA, such assports.

In the system 100, the revenue generators 110A-N may interact with theservice provider 130, such as via a web application. The revenuegenerators 110A-N may send information, such as billing, website ormobile site and advertisement information, to the service provider 130via the web application. The web application may include a web browseror other application such as any application capable of displaying webcontent. The application may be implemented with a processor such as apersonal computer, personal digital assistant, mobile phone, or anyother machine capable of implementing a web application.

The users 120AA-NN may also interact individually with the serviceprovider 130, through the mobile network operators 115A-N, such as via amobile phone or any mobile device capable of communicating with themobile network operators 115A-N. The users 120AA-NN may interact withthe service provider 130 via a mobile web based application, a mobilestandalone application, or any application capable of running on amobile device. The service provider 130 may communicate data to therevenue generators 110A-N over a network and to the users 120AA-NN overa network via the MNOs 115A-N. The following examples may refer to arevenue generator A 110A as an online advertiser or mobile advertiser;however the system 100 may apply to any revenue generators 110A-N whomay desire to serve advertisements over mobile devices.

A revenue generator A 110A who is an mobile advertiser may maintain oneor more accounts with the service provider 130. For each account therevenue generator A 110A may maintain one or more campaigns. For eachcampaign the revenue generator A 110A may maintain one or more listings.A listing may include a keyword, or a category, and one or more mobilemessage listings. Each mobile message listing may include anadvertisement title, an advertisement description, a bid amount and amobile site URL, if any. A mobile message listing may represent anassociation between a keyword, or a category, and a mobileadvertisement. The listing may also include an option to have theadvertisement displayed to users over any mobile messages. The revenuegenerators 110A-N may be able to specify demographic characteristics,such as age, gender, etc, they wish their advertisement to be targetedto. The revenue generators 110A-N may be able to specify a minimumnumber of mobile messages to have their advertisement attached to permonth.

If the revenue generator A 110A does not have a mobile site URL for theMNO A 115A, the revenue generator A 110A may still bid on a keyword forthe MNO A 115A. In this case, the service provider 130 may dynamicallycreate a “WAP ad.” The “WAP ad” may be an offer landing page containingthe phone number of the advertiser and/or the logo of the advertiser.When a user AA 120AA clicks on the advertisement of the revenuegenerator A 110A who does not have a mobile site, the user AA 120AA maybe taken to a page showing the phone number and/or logo of the revenuegenerator A 110A. The user AA 120AA may then use their mobile device tocall the phone number of the revenue generator A 110A and complete theirtransaction. The data associated with the “WAP ad” may be stored in theadvertisement title and/or the advertisement description fields.

The keywords may represent one or more terms that the revenue generatorA 110A wishes to associate with their advertisement. If the keywordsappear in a mobile message, the advertisement of the revenue generator A110A may be attached to the mobile message. The category may represent acategory of mobile messages that the revenue generator A 110A wishestheir advertisement to be associated with, such as “sports.” Theadvertisement title may represent the data the revenue generator A 110Awishes to be displayed to a user AA 120AA. Alternatively or in addition,the advertisement description may represent the data the revenuegenerator A 110A wishes to be displayed to a user AA 120AA when the userAA 120AA receives a mobile message containing the keyword. The mobilesite URL may represent the link the revenue generator A 110A wishes auser AA 120AA to be directed to upon clicking on the mobileadvertisement of the revenue generator A 110A, such as the home page ofthe revenue generator A 110A. The bid amount may represent a maximumamount the revenue generator A 110A may be willing to pay each time auser AA 120AA may click on the mobile advertisement of the revenuegenerator A 110A or each time the mobile advertisement of the revenuegenerator A 110A may be shown to a user AA 120AA, such as in a mobilemessage.

The revenue generators 110A-N may bid on categories of mobile messagesto target their advertisements to, such as sports, finance, or generallyany category capable of classifying mobile messages. Alternatively or inaddition the revenue generators 110A-N may bid on mobile messages sentvia a particular carrier, network or to/from a particular publisher. Therevenue generators 110A-N may bid on any messages sent via a particularcarrier, network or to/from a particular publisher, or the revenuegenerators 110A-N may bid on specific keywords that appear in messagesor categories of messages sent via a particular carrier, network orto/from a particular publisher. More detail regarding the aspects ofmobile advertising systems, as well as their structure, function andoperation, can be found in commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/712,276, filed on Feb. 28, 2007, entitled, “SYSTEM FOR SERVINGADVERTISEMENTS OVER MOBILE DEVICES”, which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety. The systems and methods herein associatedwith mobile advertising systems may be practiced in combination withmethods and systems described in the above-identified patent applicationincorporated by reference.

The service provider 130 may utilize a flat rate advertising model, suchas offering a “flat rate-card” to the revenue generators 110A-N. A “flatrate-card” may offer the revenue generators 110A-N the opportunity topurchase a fixed number of mobile messages which their advertisement maybe attached to over a given time period, such as month. The fee for thisservice may be a flat-rate fee and may recur on a periodic basis, suchas monthly. For example, a revenue generator A 110A may pay ten dollarsper month to have their advertisement attached to two thousand mobilemessages per month. The revenue generators 110A-N may combine the flatrate model with any of the aforementioned targeting mechanisms, such asmessages relating to a particular keyword, category, network, carrier orpublisher. Alternatively or in addition the revenue generators 110A-Nmay elect to have their advertisements attached to any mobile messages,without restriction.

The flat rate fee may be based on the number of users 120A-N whoactually click on an advertisement of a revenue generator A 110A,measured by a cost per click (“CPC”). Alternatively or in addition theflat rate fee may be based on the number of impressions of anadvertisement of a revenue generator A 110A. The number of impressionsmay refer to the number of times users 110A-N view the advertisement ofthe revenue generator A 110A. The impressions may be measured by costper mille (“CPM”), which may refer to the cost per one thousandimpressions.

The service provider 130 may use metrics related to the number of mobilemessages sent in previous months to determine a projection of the numberof mobile messages which may be sent in subsequent months. The serviceprovider 130 may use the projections to sell advertisements attached toa guaranteed number of mobile messages, such as two thousand mobilemessages. The revenue generators 110A-N may pay a premium amount or anextra fee to purchase have their advertisement attached to a guaranteednumber of mobile messages over a given time period, such as a month.Alternatively or in addition, the revenue generators 110A-N may pay lessfor a non-guaranteed number of advertisements over a given time period,such as a month. The concept of guaranteed and non-guaranteedadvertisements may be incorporated with the above mentioned “flatrate-card” model.

There may be some instances where multiple revenue generators 110A-N mayhave bid on the same keywords targeted to mobile messages. The serviceprovider 130 may serve to the users 120AA-NA the online advertisementsthat the users 120AA-NA may be most likely to click on. For example, theservice provider 130 may include a relevancy assessment to determine therelevancy of the multiple mobile advertisements to the keywords. Themore relevant a mobile advertisement may be to the keyword the morelikely it may be that the user AA 120AA may click on the advertisement.Methods for assessing relevancy in online web search marketing may alsoapply to mobile messaging marketing.

In operation, one of the MNOs 115A-N, such as the MNO 115A, may receivea mobile message to be communicated to one of the users 120AA-AN, suchas the user AA 120AA. The MNO 115A may then request an advertisementfrom the service provider 130. In one instance, the short messageservice center (“SMSC”) component of the MNOs 115A-N may receive themobile message and request the advertisement from the service provider130. The request may include information describing the message, thesender, the recipient, such as the user AA 120AA, or generally anyinformation that may be used to target an advertisement.

The information describing the recipient and/or the source may includethe type of mobile device the recipient is using, demographicinformation of the recipient, such as gender, age, location of therecipient, etc., or generally any information describing the recipientthat may be used to target an advertisement. The information describingthe source may also indicate whether the source of the message was anexternal short messaging entity (“ESME”), such as a voting systemresponse, or generally any information regarding the ESME that may beused to target an advertisement. The information describing the messagemay include the message length, the entire content of the message,keywords from the content of the message, a category of the message, orgenerally any information about the message that may be used to targetan advertisement. Alternatively or in addition, the MNOs 115A-N maysupply different amounts of information with the ad request.

The information received with the ad request may be applied to existingclient browser targeting mechanisms of the service provider 130. Theservice provider 130 may use any or all of the received information totarget an advertisement, such as targeting the advertisement to thespecific mobile device, the user AA 120AA, the time of the day, thelocation of the user, the source of the message, or generally using anyof the information supplied by the MNO A 115A. The advertisement may becommunicated back to the MNO A 115A. The MNO 115A may attach theadvertisement to the mobile message and communicate the mobile messageto the user AA 120AA. Alternatively or in addition the MNO A 115A maycommunicate the entire message to the service provider 130. The serviceprovider 130 may attach an advertisement to the message and maycommunicate the message, with the advertisement attached, to the MNO A115A. The MNO A 115A may then communicate the message, with theadvertisement attached to the user AA 120AA. The service provider 130may store data regarding the user AA 120AA and the advertisement. Thedata may include the demographics of the user AA 120AA and whether theuser AA 120AA clicked on the advertisement in the mobile message.

Alternatively or in addition the content of the message, if received,may be targeted with a content matching system. The service provider 130may implement a content matching system. The content matching system mayprocess the words on a given message to determine a set of terms. Theset of terms may be the most commonly occurring words, or may bedetermined by some other factor. The set of terms may then be used todetermine which of the content match advertisements to display. Thecontent matching system may use the set of terms to selectadvertisements, such as by selecting the advertisements which containthe most number of words matching the set of terms. The set of terms maybe referred to as a query or a content match query.

Alternatively or in addition, the MNOs 115A-N may display advertisementswithin the mobile applications of the users 120AA-NN. For example, themobile messaging applications of the users 120AA-NN may have an ad slotwhere the MNOs 115A-N may display advertisements. The MNOs 115A-N mayrequest a batch of advertisements from the service provider 130 fordisplay on the mobile applications of each of the users 120AA-NN. TheMNOs 115A-N may communicate data relating to each of the individualusers 120AA-NN to the service provider 130. The service provider 130 mayuse the data relating to each of the individual users 120AA-NN toretrieve advertisements relating to each of the users 120AA-NN. Theservice provider 130 may then communicate the batches of advertisementsfor each of the users 120AA-NN to the MNOs 115A-N. The MNOs 115A-N maythen display the advertisements in the mobile applications of each ofthe users 120AA-NN, such as mobile messaging applications.

More detail regarding the aspects of auction-based systems, as well asthe structure, function and operation of the service provider 130, asmentioned above, can be found in commonly owned U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/625,082, filed on Jul. 22, 2003, entitled, “TERM-BASEDCONCEPT MARKET”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/625,000, file onJul. 22, 2003, entitled, “CONCEPT VALUATION IN A TERM-BASED CONCEPTMARKET” filed on Jul. 22, 2003; U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/625,001, filed on Jul. 22, 2003, entitled, “TERM-BASED CONCEPTINSTRUMENTS”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/489,386, filed onJul. 18, 2006, entitled, “ARCHITECTURE FOR AN ADVERTISEMENT DELIVERYSYSTEM,” all of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety. The systems and methods herein associated with adcampaign management may be practiced in combination with methods andsystems described in the above-identified patent applicationsincorporated by reference.

Furthermore, the service provider 130 may generate reports based on thedata collected from the users 120AA-NN and communicate the reports tothe revenue generators 110A-N to assist the revenue generators 110A-N inmeasuring the effectiveness of their mobile advertising. The reports mayindicate the number of times the users 120AA-NN viewed a mobileadvertisement of the revenue generators 110A-N, the number of times amobile advertisement of the revenue generators 110A-N was clicked on bythe users 120AA-NN, or generally any information useful to the revenuegenerators 110A-N. There may be a separate report for each MNO 115A-Nthe advertisement of the revenue generator A 110A was displayed on. Thereports may also generally indicate any data that may assist the revenuegenerators 110A-N in measuring the effectiveness of their mobileadvertising campaigns.

FIG. 2 provides a simplified view of a network environment implementinga system 200 for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices. Not all of the depicted components may be required, however,and some implementations may include additional components not shown inthe figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as setforth herein. Additional, different or fewer components may be provided.

The system 200 may include one or more web applications, standaloneapplications and mobile applications 210A-N, which may be collectivelyor individually referred to as client applications of the revenuegenerators 110A-N. The system 200 may also include one or more mobileapplications, or mobile apps, which may be running on one or more mobiledevices 220AA-NN. The system 200 may also include one or more MNOmessaging gateway servers 215A-N, a network 230, a network 235, theservice provider server 240, a third party server 250, and anadvertising services server 260.

Some or all of the advertisement services server 260, service providerserver 240, and third-party server 250 may be in communication with eachother by way of network 235 and may be the system or componentsdescribed below in FIG. 11. The advertisement services server 260,third-party server 250 and service provider server 240 may eachrepresent multiple linked computing devices. Multiple distinct thirdparty servers, such as the third-party server 250, may be included inthe system 200. The third-party server 250 may be an MNO messaginggateway server 215A-N or a server associated with, or in communicationwith an MNO messaging gateway server 215A-N.

The networks 230, 235 may include wide area networks (WAN), such as theinternet, local area networks (LAN), campus area networks, metropolitanarea networks, or any other networks that may allow for datacommunication. The network 230 may include the Internet and may includeall or part of network 235; network 235 may include all or part ofnetwork 230. The networks 230, 235 may be divided into sub-networks. Thesub-networks may allow access to all of the other components connectedto the networks 230, 235 in the system 200, or the sub-networks mayrestrict access between the components connected to the networks 230,235. The network 235 may be regarded as a public or private networkconnection and may include, for example, a virtual private network or anencryption or other security mechanism employed over the publicInternet, or the like.

The revenue generators 110A-N may use a web application 210A, standaloneapplication 210B, or a mobile application 210N, or any combinationthereof, to communicate to the service provider server 240, such as viathe networks 230, 235. The service provider server 240 may communicateto the revenue generators 110A-N via the networks 230, 235, through theweb applications, standalone applications or mobile applications 210A-N.

The users 120AA-NN may use a mobile application running on a mobiledevice 220AA-220NN, such as a mobile web browser, to communicate withthe service provider server 240, via the MNO messaging gateway servers215A-N and the networks 230, 235. The service provider server 240 maycommunicate to the users 120AA-NN via the networks 230, 235 and the MNOmessaging gateway servers 215A-N, through the mobile devices 220AA-NN.

The web applications, standalone applications, mobile applications andmobile devices 210A-N, 220AA-NN may be connected to the network 230 inany configuration that supports data transfer. This may include a dataconnection to the network 230 that may be wired or wireless. Any of theweb applications, standalone applications and mobile applications210A-N, may individually be referred to as a client application. The webapplication 210A may run on any platform that supports web content, suchas a web browser or a computer, a mobile phone, personal digitalassistant (PDA), pager, network-enabled television, digital videorecorder, such as TIVO®, automobile and/or any appliance capable of datacommunications.

The standalone applications 210B may run on a machine that may have aprocessor, memory, a display, a user interface and a communicationinterface. The processor may be operatively connected to the memory,display and the interfaces and may perform tasks at the request of thestandalone applications 210B or the underlying operating system. Thememory may be capable of storing data. The display may be operativelyconnected to the memory and the processor and may be capable ofdisplaying information to the revenue generator B 110B. The userinterface may be operatively connected to the memory, the processor, andthe display and may be capable of interacting with a revenue generator A110A. The communication interface may be operatively connected to thememory, and the processor, and may be capable of communicating throughthe networks 230, 235 with the service provider server 240, third partyserver 250 and advertising services server 260. The standaloneapplications 210B may be programmed in any programming language thatsupports communication protocols. These languages may include: SUN JAVA,C++, C#, ASP, SUN JAVASCRIPT, asynchronous SUN JAVASCRIPT, or ADOBEFLASH ACTIONSCRIPT, amongst others.

The mobile application 210N may run on any mobile device which may havea data connection. The mobile applications 210N may be a web application210A, a standalone application 210B, or a mobile browser. The mobiledevices 220AA-NN may be one of a broad range of electronic devices whichmay include mobile phones, PDAs, and laptops and notebook computers. Themobile devices 220AA-NN may have a reduced feature set, such as asmaller keyboard and/or screen, and may be incapable of supporting atraditional web search.

The data connection of the mobile devices 220AA-NN may be a cellularconnection, such as a GSM/GPRS/WCDMA connection, a wireless dataconnection, an internet connection, an infra-red connection, a Bluetoothconnection, or any other connection capable of transmitting data. Thedata connection may be used to connect directly to the network 230, orto connect to the network 230 through the MNO messaging gateway servers215A-N.

The MNO messaging gateway servers 215A-N may control the access themobile devices 220AA-NN may have to the network. The MNO messaginggateway servers 215A-N may also control the technology supporting therespective mobile devices 220AA-NN. This may affect aspects of the userexperience, such as signal strength and availability, speed and billingmechanisms. For example, the MNO messaging gateway server A 215A mayonly allow the users 120AA-NA access to content provided by partners ofthe MNO A 115A. Furthermore, the MNO messaging gateway servers 215A-Nmay only allow users 120AA-NN access to data in a specific format, suchas WML, XHTML, NTT DOCOMO IMODE HTML, or cHTML. Alternatively or inaddition, the mobile devices 220AA-NN may only support one of theaforementioned formats.

The MNOs 115A-N may utilize various components to provide these servicesto the users 120AA-NN, such as network switching systems (“NSS”), mobileswitching centers (“MSC”), mobile switching center servers (“MSC-S”),home location registers (“HLR”), authentication centers (“AUC”), shortmessage service centers (“SMSC”), signal transfer points (“STP”),message service centers (“MSC”), or generally any component that may beutilized to provide the mobile services. The MNOs 115A-N may interfacewith one or more external short messaging entities (ESME), such as thethird party server 250, which may connect to the MNOs 115A-N to sendand/or receive mobile messages to the users 120AA-NN. The ESMEs mayprovide voicemail, web, email, or other services to the users 120AA-NNof the MNOs 115A-N.

The service provider server 240 may include one or more of thefollowing: an application server, a data source, such as a databaseserver, a middleware server, and an advertising services server. Onemiddleware server may be a mobile commerce platform, such as the YAHOO!SUSHI platform, which may properly encode data, such as mobile pages ormobile advertisements, to the formats specific to the MNO messaginggateway servers 215A-N. The service provider server 240 may co-exist onone machine or may be running in a distributed configuration on one ormore machines. The service provider server 240 may collectively bereferred to as the server. The service provider server 240 may receiverequests from the users 120AA-NN and the revenue generators 110A-N andmay serve mobile pages to the users 120AA-NN and web pages and/or mobilepages to the revenue generators 110A-N based on their requests.

The third party server 250 may include one or more of the following: anapplication server, a data source, such as a database server, amiddleware server, and an advertising services server. The third partyserver 250 may co-exist on one machine or may be running in adistributed configuration on one or more machines. Alternatively or inaddition, the third party server may be an ESME server. The advertisingservices server 260 may provide a platform for the inclusion ofadvertisements in pages, such as web pages or mobile pages. Theadvertisement services server 260 may be used for providing mobileadvertisements that may be displayed to the users 120AA-NN.

The service provider server 240, the third party server 250 and theadvertising services server 260 may be one or more computing devices ofvarious kinds, such as the computing device in FIG. 11. Such computingdevices may generally include any device that may be configured toperform computation and that may be capable of sending and receivingdata communications by way of one or more wired and/or wirelesscommunication interfaces. Such devices may be configured to communicatein accordance with any of a variety of network protocols, including butnot limited to protocols within the Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. For example, the webapplication 210A may employ HTTP to request information, such as a webpage, from a web server, which may be a process executing on the serviceprovider server 240 or the third-party server 250.

There may be several configurations of database servers, applicationservers, middleware servers and advertising services servers included inthe service provider server 240 or the third party server 250. Databaseservers may include MICROSOFT SQL SERVER, ORACLE, IBM DB2 or any otherdatabase software, relational or otherwise. The application server maybe APACHE TOMCAT, MICROSOFT IIS, ADOBE COLDFUSION, YAPACHE or any otherapplication server that supports communication protocols. The middlewareserver may be any middleware that connects software components orapplications. The application server on the service provider server 240or the third party server 250 may serve pages, such as web pages to theusers 120AA-NN and the revenue generators 110A-N. The advertisingservices server may provide a platform for the inclusion ofadvertisements in pages, such as web pages. The advertising servicesserver 260 may also exist independent of the service provider server 240and the third party server 250.

The networks 230, 235 may be configured to couple one computing deviceto another computing device to enable communication of data between thedevices. The networks 230, 235 may generally be enabled to employ anyform of machine-readable media for communicating information from onedevice to another. Each of networks 230, 235 may include one or more ofa wireless network, a wired network, a local area network (LAN), a widearea network (WAN), a direct connection such as through a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) port, and the like, and may include the set ofinterconnected networks that make up the Internet. The networks 230, 235may include any communication method by which information may travelbetween computing devices.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an implementation of the system ofFIG. 1 or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services. Not all of the depicted components may be required,however, and some implementations may include additional components notshown in the figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of thecomponents may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of theclaims as set forth herein. Additional, different or fewer componentsmay be provided.

The system 300 may include the service provider server 240, the thirdparty server 250, such as an ESME server, the MNO A messaging gatewayserver 215A, the mobile devices 220AA-NA, and the users 120AA-NA. Theservice provider server 240 may include an MNO API interface 310, amobile message ad delivery layer 330, an outbound mobile messagecomponent 340, an ad delivery system 320, and an ad data store 350.

In operation, the user AA 120AA may send a mobile message to the user BA120BA. The message may be routed through the MNO A messaging gatewayserver 215A. The MNO A messaging gateway server 215A may make anadvertisement request to the service provider 240, via the MNO APIinterface 310. The request may include information describing the userAA 120AA, the user BA 120BA, the content of the message, or somederivative of the content of the message, and generally any informationthat may be used to target an advertisement. The request may alsoinclude the length of the message, as the total length of the message,including the advertisement, may be limited to a fixed number ofcharacters, such as 160.

The MNO API interface 310 may communicate the request to the mobilemessage ad delivery layer 330. The mobile message ad delivery layer 330may process the request to format the data from the request into astandardized form used by the ad delivery system 320. The ad deliverysystem 320 may also supply ads for client browser based targeting. Theprocessing of the data may include generating content match keywordsfrom the content of the message, or parsing the demographic informationof the recipient. The mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may alsodetermine the maximum length the advertisement may be to comply with thespace restrictions of mobile messaging.

The mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may also determine whether thedata describing the recipient can be used to identify the recipient. Forexample, if the mobile message ad delivery layer 330 receives an addressof the recipient, the mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may be ableto match the address to an existing user ID on the service provider 130.If the recipient is identifiable, the historical behavior associatedwith their user ID may also be used to target an advertisement.

The mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may request an advertisementfrom the ad delivery system 320, based on the processed data from the adrequest. The ad delivery system 320 may retrieve an ad from the ad datastore 350 relating to the processed data. For example, if the MNO A 115Acommunicates the current location of the user BA 120BA to the serviceprovider 130, the service provider 130 may retrieve an advertisementrelated to the current geographic location of the user BB 120BA.

The revenue generators 110A-N may elect to participate in the mobilemessaging advertising and may provide a short mobile messageadvertisement in addition to their web advertisements. The short mobilemessage ad may be stored in the ad data store 350. Alternatively or inaddition the ad delivery system 320 may use all or part of the titleand/or description of an advertisement as a mobile messageadvertisement.

The ad delivery system 320 may then communicate the ad to the mobilemessage ad delivery layer 330. The mobile message ad delivery layer mayshorten the link, or URL, associated with the advertisement, such as bystoring a mapping from the original link to a shortened link. A shortlink may be necessary to comply with the space requirements of themobile message. The mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may thencommunicate the text of the advertisement and the link to the MNO APIinterface 310. The MNO API interface 310 may then communicate theadvertisement and link to the MNO A messaging gateway server 215A. TheMNO A messaging gateway server 215A may attach the advertisement and thelink to the mobile message, such as at the end of the message. Themobile message, with the attached advertisement, may be communicated tothe intended recipient, the user BA 120BA.

The user BA 120BA may view the mobile message, with the attachedadvertisement, on their mobile device 220BA. If the user BA 120BAselects the link in the mobile message, the mobile web browser of theuser BA 120BA may be opened and directed to the link represented by theshort link. The short link may direct the mobile browser of the user BA120BA to the service provider server 240. The service provider server240 may store data indicating that the user BA 120BA clicked on themobile message advertisement and may then redirect the browser of theuser BA 120BA to the link mapped to the short link.

Alternatively or in addition, the MNO A messaging gateway server 215Amay communicate the entire message to the MNO API interface 310. In thiscase, the mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may attach theadvertisement and link directly to the mobile message. The mobilemessage, with the advertisement and link attached, may then becommunicated back to the MNO A messaging gateway server 215A.

Alternatively or in addition the outbound mobile message component 340,may identify alerts that may be sent to the users 120AA-NA. The users120AA-NA may have subscribed to the alerts, such as sports scores, newsheadlines or stock quotes. The alerts may be communicated to the users120AA-NA via a mobile message, such as an SMS message. In this instancethe service provider server 240 may be an ESME. The outbound mobilemessage component 340 may communicate an ad request to the mobilemessage ad delivery layer 330. The ad request may include informationabout the alert, such as the content of the alert or a category of thealert.

The mobile message ad delivery layer 330 may process the datacommunicated in the ad request so the data conforms to the inputs usedby the ad delivery system 320 for client browser targeting. Theprocessed data may then be communicated to the ad delivery system 320.The ad delivery system 320 may retrieve ads from the ad data store 350based on the processed data. For example, if the category of the alertwas sports, the ad delivery system 320 may search for sportsadvertisements or for advertisements of revenue generators 110A-N whorequested their advertisement be displayed with sports messages.

The ad delivery system 320 may then communicate the advertisement to themobile message ad delivery layer 330. The mobile message ad deliverylayer 330 may attach the advertisement to the alert and communicate thealert, with the attached advertisement, to the outbound mobile messagecomponent 340. The outbound mobile message component 340 may thencommunicate the alert, with the attached ad, to the MNO A messaginggateway server 215A. The MNO A messaging gateway server 215A may thencommunicate the alert, with the attached advertisement, to the user AA120AA, via the mobile device 220AA.

Alternatively or in addition the outbound mobile message component 340may communicate the alert to the MNO A messaging gateway server 215A,without attaching an advertisement. In this case, the MNO A mobilemessaging gateway server 215A may make an ad request to the MNO APIinterface 310 for the alert, as described above.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an implementation by a mobilenetwork operator A 115A and a service provider 130 of the system of FIG.1 or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services. Not all of the depicted components may be required,however, and some implementations may include additional components notshown in the figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of thecomponents may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of theclaims as set forth herein. Additional, different or fewer componentsmay be provided.

The system 400 may include a short message service center (“SMSC”) 410,one or more home location registers (“HLR”) 420, one or more signaltransport point (“STP”) 425, one or more mobile switching centers(“MSC”) 430, one or more air interfaces 435, one or more mobile devices220AA-220NA, a voicemail ESME 466, a web ESME 464, an email ESME 462,other ESMEs 460, and a service provider server 240. The service providerserver 240 may include an SMS Ads Layer 440, an Infinity/FederationLayer 450, a Display Ads MME 460, a YSM/Panama Ads 465, an outbound SMS470, and a QuickSilver component 475.

The MNO A 115A may implement one or more mobile network components, suchas the SMSC 410, the HLR 420, the STPs 425, the MSCs 430 and the airinterfaces 435. The users 120AA-NA may interact with the MNO A 115Athrough the mobile devices 220AA-NA. The mobile devices 220AA-NA mayinterface with the MNO A 115A through the air interfaces 435, such ascell phone tower. The air interfaces 435 may communicate with the MNO A115A through one of the MSCs 430. The MSCs 430 may assist the MNOs115A-N in determining the location of the users 120AA-NA and in routingthe mobile services of the users 120AA-NA to the MNO A 115A. The STPs425 may route the communication data between the MSCs 430 and the SMSC410. The HLRs 420 may be databases which may store information abouteach of the users 120AA-NA, authorized to access the MNO A 115A. TheHLRs 420 may supply information about the users 120AA-NA to the SMSC410. The SMSC 410 may interface with ESMEs, such as the voicemail ESME466, the web ESME 464, the email ESME 462 or other ESMEs 460. The ESMEsmay provide additional services to the users 120AA-NA via mobilemessaging.

The service provider server 240 may implement one or more of the SMS AdsLayer 440, the Infinity/Federation Layer 450, the Display Ads 460, theYSM/Panama Ads 465, the outbound SMS 470 and the Quicksilver component475. The SMS Ads Layer 440 may receive requests for advertisements fromthe MNO A 115A and may communicate advertisements to the MNO A 115A. TheDisplay Ads MME 460 and the YSM/Panama Ads 465 may be two advertisementsstores that may be utilized by the SMS Ads Layer 440. TheInfinity/Federation Layer 450 may be a client browser advertisementdelivery mechanism that may provide a seamless integration of both theDisplay Ads MME 460 and the YSM/Panama Ads 465. The outbound SMS 470 mayidentify when alerts should be sent to the users 120AA-NN and theQuickSilver component 475 may assist in communicating the alerts to theSMS Ads Layer 440 for advertisement inclusion or in communicating thealerts directly to the users 120AA-NA.

In operation, one the of the users 120AA-NA, such as the user AA 120AAmay send a mobile message. The mobile device 220AA of the user AA 120AAmay interface with the MNO A 115A via the air interface 435, such as amobile phone tower. The air interface 435 may interact with one of theMSCs 430. The MSCs 430 may utilize the STPs 425 and/or the HLRs 420 tocommunicate the message to the SMSC 410.

The SMSC 410 may send and receive mobile messages to/from the users120AA-NA; thus, in this instance, the SMSC 410 may be the MNO Amessaging gateway server 215A. If the recipient user is not available,the SMSC 410 may store the mobile message and send it when the recipientuser becomes available. The message may be routed back through to one ofthe users 120AA-NA on the MNO A 115A, or the message may be routed tousers 120BA-NN of one of the other MNOs 115B-N. Upon receiving themobile message, the SMSC 410 may make a request for an advertisementfrom the service provider server 240 via the SMS Ads layer 440. The SMSC410 may receive information pertaining to the user AA 120AA from theHLRs 420. The information may be communicated to the SMS Ads layer 440as part of the request for an advertisement. The SMS Ads layer 440 mayinterface with the Infinity/Federation Layer 450 to retrieveadvertisements from either the Display Ads MME 460, or the YSM/PanamaAds 465. The SMS Ads Layer 440 may then communicate the advertisementback to the SMSC 410.

In the case of a mobile messaging alert, the outbound SMS 470 maycommunicate the outbound alert to the SMS Ads Layer 440 via theQuickSilver component 475. The SMS Ads Layer 440 may retrieve an ad forthe alert from the Display Ads Mme 460 or the YSM/Panama Ads 465, viathe Infinity/Federation Layer 450. The SMS Ads Layer 440 may then attachan advertisement to the alert and communicate the alert, with theadvertisement attached, to the SMSC 410. The SMSC 410 may communicatethe alert, with the attached advertisement, to one of the mobile devices220AA-NA of one of the users 120AA-NA, via the STPs 425, HLRs 420, MSCs430 and air interfaces 435.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating operations of deliveringadvertisements through user to user mobile messaging in the system ofFIG. 1, or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services. At block 510, the user AA 120AA may send a mobilemessage, from the mobile device 220AA to the user BB 120BB. The mobiledevice 220AA may communicate the message to the MNO A 115A.

At block 520, the MNO A 115A may receive the message from the user AA120AA. The MNO A 115A may identify the destination of the message andcommunicate the message to the MNO B 115B. At block 530, the MNO B 115Bmay receive the message and may identify the recipient as the user BB120BB. The MNO B 115B may be able to access the account of the user BB120BB and all of the data associated with the account of the user BB120BB. This data may include the call history of the user BB 120BB, themobile messaging history of the user BB 120BB, the data usage of theuser BB 120BB, the payment mechanism of the user BB 120BB, the addressof the user BB 120BB, the current location of the user BB 120BB, orgenerally any information that the MNO B 115B may have access topertaining to the user BB 120BB.

At block 540, the MNO B 115B may communicate an ad request to theservice provider 130. The ad request may include data pertaining to themessage, data pertaining to the user AA 120AA, data pertaining to theuser BB 120BB, or generally any data that may be used to target anadvertisement of one of the revenue generators 110A-N. The data mayinclude the length of the message, the entire content of the message, orsome subset or categorization of the content of the message. The datamay include some or all of the data relating to the account of the userBB 120BB.

At block 550 the service provider 130 may receive the ad request and mayretrieve an advertisement based on the data describing the message, thesender of the message, the recipient of the message, or any other datacommunicated by the MNO B 115B. The service provider 130 may process thedata to put it into a standardized format accepted by the existingclient browser based targeting systems of the service provider 130. Byusing the existing client browser based targeting systems the serviceprovider 130 may seamlessly interface mobile messaging advertising withexisting behavioral data and with existing advertisements of the revenuegenerators 110A-N.

The service provider 130 may also incorporate the length of the messageas an input for retrieving the advertisement. The mobile message may belimited to a fixed number of characters. Thus, the service provider 130may only retrieve advertisements that meet the space limitations of themobile message. In order to shorten the message, the service provider130 may implement a URL mapping system. The URL mapping system mayreplace the URL of the advertiser associated with an advertisement witha shortened URL. The shortened URL may refer to the service provider130. When the users 120AA-NN click on a shortened URL, they may bedirected to the service provider 130. The service provider 130 may thenuse the URL mapping system to redirect the users 120AA-NN to the website of the revenue generator A 110A associated with the advertisement.The service provider 130 may also use the URL redirect to store datadescribing the interaction with the users 120AA-NN, such as datadescribing that the users 120AA-NN clicked through on the URL of theadvertisement. This information may later be used for billing,targeting, or reporting purposes.

If the service provider 130 is unable to retrieve any mobile messageadvertisements, the service provider 130 may retrieve a client browseradvertisement of one of the revenue generators 110A-N. The clientbrowser advertisement may then be processed to convert it into a formatacceptable for mobile messaging advertising. The formatting may consistof shortening the advertisement or of inserting the title of theadvertisement or the description of the advertisement into a template,such as “Buy [TITLE]!” or “Visit [TITLE].”

At block 560 the service provider 130 may communicate the advertisementto the MNO B 115B. At block 570, the MNO B 115B attaches theadvertisement to the mobile message. Alternatively or in addition if theMNO B 115B communicates the entire mobile message to the serviceprovider 130, the service provider 130 may attach the advertisement tothe message and communicate the mobile message and the advertisement tothe MNO B 115B.

At block 580 the MNO B 115B communicates the mobile message, with theadvertisement attached, to the mobile device 220BB of the user BB 120BB.The user BB 120BB may then view the mobile message, and theadvertisement, via the mobile device 220BB. The user BB 120BB may clickon, or select, the advertisement attached to the mobile message and maythen be directed to the web site of the revenue generator A 110Aassociated with the advertisement. Alternatively or in addition clickingon the advertisement may cause the mobile device 220BB of the user BB120BB to dial the phone number of the revenue generator A 110A.

Alternatively or in addition the high volume of mobile messages throughthe MNOs 115A-N may require that the MNOs 115A-N cache advertisementsrather than make an ad request for each mobile message. This may providea scalable solution to accommodate for the increasing amount of mobilemessages being sent by the users 120AA-NN. In this case, the MNOs 115A-Nmay request a batch of ads for one or more categories of mobilemessages, such as sports, finance, etc. The MNOs 115A-N may maintainmetrics describing how many of the advertisements were displayed to theusers 120AA-NN and whether any of the users 120AA-NN clicked on any ofthe advertisements. The MNOs 115A-N may then communicate the metrics tothe service provider 130 when requesting new batches of advertisements.In addition, the service provider 130 may supply the MNOs 115A-N withtargeting mechanisms, such as a content matching system, in order toensure that the MNOs 115A-N properly target the advertisements to themobile messages.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operations of communicating anadvertisement to a mobile network operator in the system of FIG. 1, orother systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices. At block 610 the service provider 130 may receive an adrequest from one of the MNOs 115A-N, such as the MNO A 115A. The adrequest may be based on a mobile message from a third party to one ofthe users 120AA-NN, from one of the user 120AA-NN to another one of theusers 120AA-NN, or from any source to one of the users 120AA-NNr. The adrequest may include data that may describe various aspects of the mobilemessage, such as the content, the sender, the recipient, or generallyany data that may be used to target an advertisement.

At block 620 the service provider 130 may retrieve an advertisementbased on the data included in the ad request. The service provider 130may utilize existing ad targeting mechanisms, such as those used inclient browser targeting, to retrieve the advertisement. If the serviceprovider 130 can link the recipient data included in the ad request witha known user, the service provider 130 may also use the behavioral dataassociated with the user to target the advertisement. The data may alsoinclude the length of the message, and/or the number of charactersavailable for an advertisement. The service provider 130 may use thisinformation to select an advertisement that meets the space requirementsof the mobile messages. In order to meet the space requirements, theservice provider 130 may implement a URL mapping system, which may allowfor the URL associated with the advertisement to be shortened.

At block 630 the service provider 130 may communicate the advertisementback to the MNO A 115A. Alternatively or in addition, if the MNO A 115Acommunicates the entire message to the service provider 130, the serviceprovider 130 may attach the advertisement to the mobile message and thencommunicate the message, with the advertisement attached, to the MNO A115A.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating operations of delivering anadvertisement through a mobile messaging alert in the system of FIG. 1,or other systems for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services. At block 710 one of the users 120AA-NN, such as theuser AA 120AA, may register for an alert. The user AA 120AA may registerfor the alert with the service provider 130 or with a third party. Thealert may relate to a particular category, such as sports, news,finance, etc., and may convey information such as sports scores, newsheadlines, stock quotes, or generally any information that the user AA120AA may wish to be alerted of. The alert may only be sent when acondition is met. The condition may be temporal, such as every hour, orthe condition may be when an event occurs, such as when a sporting scorechanges or when a stock price reaches a threshold.

At block 720, the condition relating to the alert may be triggered. Thecondition may be triggered when a certain event occurs, such as thepassage of time or a change in a score or stock quote. If the alert isbeing supplied by the service provider 130 the service provider 130 maygenerate the alert. If the alert is being supplied by a third party, thethird party may communicate the alert, or data describing the alertand/or the recipient to the service provider 130. In this situation thesystem 100 may follow the operations described in FIG. 5.

At block 730, the service provider 130 may retrieve an advertisementbased on the alert. The advertisement may relate to the content of thealert or may relate to the recipient of the alert. The user AA 120AA mayneed to be logged in with top the service provider 130 with a user ID toaccess the alerts functionality. The service provider 130 may havestored behavioral data associated with the user ID of the user AA 120AAand may use the behavioral data to target the advertisement.Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may target theadvertisement based on the category of the alert, such as sports,finance, etc. The service provider 130 may need to determine the maximummessage size supported by the MNO A 115A. The service provider 130 mayneed to ensure that when the advertisement is added to the message thecombined message/advertisement does not exceed the maximum messagelength. The service provider 130 may implement a URL mapping system tomap longer URLs to shorter URLs, thereby reducing the number ofcharacters needed for the advertisement.

At block 740, the service provider 130 may attach the advertisement tothe alert. The advertisement may be appended to the end of the alert.The service provider 130 may ensure that the mobile device 220AA of theuser AA 120AA can support the underlying technology of the URL that theadvertisement directs the user AA 120AA to. If the mobile device 220AAof the user AA 120AA does not support the technology implemented by thewebsite referenced in the URL, then the service provider 130 may directthe user AA 120AA to a “WAP ad” or a call landing page. At block 750 theservice provider 130 may communicate the alert to the user AA 120AA viathe MNO A 115A. The user AA 120AA may then view the alert, and theadvertisement, via the mobile device 220AA.

Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may communicatethe alert, without an advertisement, to the MNO A 115A. The MNO A 115A,may then make an ad request back to the service provider 130 for thealert. If the alert does not have enough space for an advertisement, thealert may be communicated to the user AA 120AA without an advertisementattached.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations of delivering anadvertisement through a third party mobile messaging alert in the systemof FIG. 1, or other systems for serving targeted advertisements overmobile messaging services. At block 810 the service provider 130 mayidentify an outbound alert 810 to be communicated to one of the users120AA-NN, such as the user 120AA. At block 820 the service provider 130may retrieve an advertisement based on the alert. The advertisement maybe based on the content of the alert, a category associated with thealert, the recipient of the alert, or generally any data describing thealert that may be used to target an advertisement. The service provider130 may use existing client browser targeting mechanisms, such ascontent matching, to retrieve an advertisement for the alert. The totalsize of the alert may be limited to a maximum number of characters. Theadvertisement retrieved by the service provider 130 may be limited insize by the available space in the alert.

At block 830 the service provider 830 may attach the advertisement tothe alert. The service provider 130 may append the advertisement to theend of the alert, may append the advertisement to the beginning of thealert, or generally may attach the advertisement to any part of thealert. At block 840 the service provider 130 may communicate the alertwith the advertisement to the user AA 120AA, via the MNO A 115A.Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may communicatethe alert, without an advertisement, to the MNO A 115A. The MNO A 115Amay then make an ad request back to the service provider 130 to receivean advertisement for the alert.

FIG. 9 illustrates a mobile device 220AA displaying a mobile messagewith a targeted advertisement attached by the system of FIG. 1 or othersystems for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices. Not all of the depicted components may be required, however,and some implementations may include additional components not shown inthe figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as setforth herein. Additional, different or fewer components may be provided.

The mobile device 220AA of the user AA 120AA may include a display 910.When viewing a mobile message, the display 910 may display a sender 920,a message 930, and an advertisement 940. The display 910 may bedisplaying a mobile message received from the user BB 120BB. Theadvertisement 940 may have been attached to the mobile message by theservice provider 130 or the MNO A 115A. The advertisement 940 may relateto the mobile message, or the recipient, the user AA 120AA.

For example, in FIG. 9, the mobile message 930 from the user BB 120BBregards “Yahoo! Mobile Web.” The advertisement 940 attached to themessage 930 may relate to “Yahoo! Mobile Web,” such as “Try Yahoo!Mobile.” The link associated with the advertisement 940,“http://m.yahoo.com/start,” may have been shortened by the serviceprovider 130 to fit within the space limitations of the message.

FIG. 10 illustrates a mobile device 220AA displaying a mobile messagingapplication including a targeted advertisement delivered by the systemof FIG. 1 or other systems for serving targeted advertisements overmobile messaging services. Not all of the depicted components may berequired, however, and some implementations may include additionalcomponents not shown in the figure. Variations in the arrangement andtype of the components may be made without departing from the spirit orscope of the claims as set forth herein. Additional, different or fewercomponents may be provided.

The mobile device 220AA may include a display 910. The display 910 maydisplay a mobile messaging application 1010 and an advertisement 1020.The mobile messaging application 1010 may have space allotted foradvertisements 1020 from the service provider 130 or the MNO A 115A. Theadvertisements may relate to the mobile messages in the mobile messagingapplication 1010, or may generally relate to the user AA 120AA. The MNOA 115A may have access to information relating to the user AA 120AA,such as home address, current location, etc. and may communicate thisinformation to the service provider 130. The service provider 130 maythen use the information to retrieve advertisements related to the userAA 120AA.

Alternatively or in addition, the service provider 130 may be able tolink the information communicated by the MNO A 115A to an existing userID of the service provider 130. The service provider 130 may then usethe historical behavioral data associated with the user ID to providetargeted advertisements for display in the mobile messaging application1010. The user information from the MNO A 115A may be linked to a userID through the home address of the user AA 120AA, the mobile phonenumber of the user AA 120AA, or generally any information that may belinked from the mobile account of the user AA 120AA to the user ID ofthe user AA 120AA on the service provider 130.

The MNO A 115A may provide an incentive to the user AA 120AA fordisplaying ads in the mobile messaging application 1010, such as notcharging the user AA 120AA for receiving and/or sending mobile messages.If the user AA 120AA selects the advertisement 1020, the mobile webbrowser of the user AA 120AA may be opened to the mobile site identifiedby the advertisement 1020. Alternatively or in addition selecting theadvertisement may result in the mobile device 220AA dialing the phonenumber associated with the advertisement 1020, such as the phone numberof one of the revenue generators 110A-N. Alternatively or in additionselecting the advertisement may result in entering a survey or a contestof one of the revenue generators 110A-N.

FIG. 11 illustrates a general computer system 1100, which may representa service provider server 240, a third party server 250, an advertisingservices server 260, one of the mobile devices 220AA-NN or any of theother computing devices referenced herein. Not all of the depictedcomponents may be required, however, and some implementations mayinclude additional components not shown in the figure. Variations in thearrangement and type of the components may be made without departingfrom the spirit or scope of the claims as set forth herein. Additional,different or fewer components may be provided.

The computer system 1100 may include a set of instructions 1124 that maybe executed to cause the computer system 1100 to perform any one or moreof the methods or computer based functions disclosed herein. Thecomputer system 1100 may operate as a standalone device or may beconnected, e.g., using a network, to other computer systems orperipheral devices.

In a networked deployment, the computer system may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a server-clientuser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 1100 may alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a communications device, a wirelesstelephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner,a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personal trusted device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any other machinecapable of executing a set of instructions 1124 (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In aparticular embodiment, the computer system 1100 may be implemented usingelectronic devices that provide voice, video or data communication.Further, while a single computer system 1100 may be illustrated, theterm “system” shall also be taken to include any collection of systemsor sub-systems that individually or jointly execute a set, or multiplesets, of instructions to perform one or more computer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the computer system 1100 may include aprocessor 1102, such as, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. The processor 1102 may be a component ina variety of systems. For example, the processor 1102 may be part of astandard personal computer or a workstation. The processor 1102 may beone or more general processors, digital signal processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, servers,networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations thereof, orother now known or later developed devices for analyzing and processingdata. The processor 1102 may implement a software program, such as codegenerated manually (i.e., programmed).

The computer system 1100 may include a memory 1104 that can communicatevia a bus 1108. The memory 1104 may be a main memory, a static memory,or a dynamic memory. The memory 1104 may include, but may not be limitedto computer readable storage media such as various types of volatile andnon-volatile storage media, including but not limited to random accessmemory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electricallyprogrammable read-only memory, electrically erasable read-only memory,flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media and the like. In onecase, the memory 1104 may include a cache or random access memory forthe processor 1102. Alternatively or in addition, the memory 1104 may beseparate from the processor 1102, such as a cache memory of a processor,the system memory, or other memory. The memory 1104 may be an externalstorage device or database for storing data. Examples may include a harddrive, compact disc (“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card,memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device,or any other device operative to store data. The memory 1104 may beoperable to store instructions 1124 executable by the processor 1102.The functions, acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or describedherein may be performed by the programmed processor 1102 executing theinstructions 1124 stored in the memory 1104. The functions, acts ortasks may be independent of the particular type of instructions set,storage media, processor or processing strategy and may be performed bysoftware, hardware, integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and thelike, operating alone or in combination. Likewise, processing strategiesmay include multiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and thelike.

The computer system 1100 may further include a display 1114, such as aliquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), aflat panel display, a solid state display, a cathode ray tube (CRT), aprojector, a printer or other now known or later developed displaydevice for outputting determined information. The display 1114 may actas an interface for the user to see the functioning of the processor1102, or specifically as an interface with the software stored in thememory 1104 or in the drive unit 1106.

Additionally, the computer system 1100 may include an input device 1112configured to allow a user to interact with any of the components ofsystem 1100. The input device 1112 may be a number pad, a keyboard, or acursor control device, such as a mouse, or a joystick, touch screendisplay, remote control or any other device operative to interact withthe system 1100.

The computer system 1100 may also include a disk or optical drive unit1106. The disk drive unit 1106 may include a computer-readable medium1122 in which one or more sets of instructions 1124, e.g. software, canbe embedded. Further, the instructions 1124 may perform one or more ofthe methods or logic as described herein. The instructions 1124 mayreside completely, or at least partially, within the memory 1104 and/orwithin the processor 1102 during execution by the computer system 1100.The memory 1104 and the processor 1102 also may includecomputer-readable media as discussed above.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium 1122 thatincludes instructions 1124 or receives and executes instructions 1124responsive to a propagated signal; so that a device connected to anetwork 235 may communicate voice, video, audio, images or any otherdata over the network 235. The instructions 1124 may be implemented withhardware, software and/or firmware, or any combination thereof. Further,the instructions 1124 may be transmitted or received over the network235 via a communication interface 1118. The communication interface 1118may be a part of the processor 1102 or may be a separate component. Thecommunication interface 1118 may be created in software or may be aphysical connection in hardware. The communication interface 1118 may beconfigured to connect with a network 235, external media, the display1114, or any other components in system 1100, or combinations thereof.The connection with the network 235 may be a physical connection, suchas a wired Ethernet connection or may be established wirelessly asdiscussed below. Likewise, the additional connections with othercomponents of the system 1100 may be physical connections or may beestablished wirelessly. In the case of a service provider server 240, athird party server 250, an advertising services server 260, the serversmay communicate with users 120AA-NN and the revenue generators 110A-Nthrough the communication interface 1118.

The network 235 may include wired networks, wireless networks, orcombinations thereof. The wireless network may be a cellular telephonenetwork, an 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, or WiMax network. Further, thenetwork 235 may be a public network, such as the Internet, a privatenetwork, such as an intranet, or combinations thereof, and may utilize avariety of networking protocols now available or later developedincluding, but not limited to TCP/IP based networking protocols.

The computer-readable medium 1122 may be a single medium, or thecomputer-readable medium 1122 may be a single medium or multiple media,such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated cachesand servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” may also include any medium that may becapable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions forexecution by a processor or that may cause a computer system to performany one or more of the methods or operations disclosed herein.

The computer-readable medium 1122 may include a solid-state memory suchas a memory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. The computer-readable medium 1122 also may be arandom access memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally,the computer-readable medium 1122 may include a magneto-optical oroptical medium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device tocapture carrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over atransmission medium. A digital file attachment to an e-mail or otherself-contained information archive or set of archives may be considereda distribution medium that may be a tangible storage medium.Accordingly, the disclosure may be considered to include any one or moreof a computer-readable medium or a distribution medium and otherequivalents and successor media, in which data or instructions may bestored.

Alternatively or in addition, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, may be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments may broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that may be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system may encompass software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

The methods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, implementations may includedistributed processing, component/object distributed processing, andparallel processing. Alternatively or in addition, virtual computersystem processing maybe constructed to implement one or more of themethods or functionality as described herein.

Although components and functions are described that may be implementedin particular embodiments with reference to particular standards andprotocols, the components and functions are not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The illustrations described herein are intended to provide a generalunderstanding of the structure of various embodiments. The illustrationsare not intended to serve as a complete description of all of theelements and features of apparatus, processors, and systems that utilizethe structures or methods described herein. Many other embodiments maybe apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the disclosure.Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from the disclosure, suchthat structural and logical substitutions and changes may be madewithout departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, theillustrations are merely representational and may not be drawn to scale.Certain proportions within the illustrations may be exaggerated, whileother proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, the disclosure and thefigures are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any subsequent arrangementdesigned to achieve the same or similar purpose may be substituted forthe specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover anyand all subsequent adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, may be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the description.

The Abstract is provided with the understanding that it will not be usedto interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition,in the foregoing Detailed Description, various features may be groupedtogether or described in a single embodiment for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure. This disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter may be directed toless than all of the features of any of the disclosed embodiments. Thus,the following claims are incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as defining separately claimedsubject matter.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the description. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope is to be determined by the broadestpermissible interpretation of the following claims and theirequivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoingdetailed description.

1. A method for serving targeted advertisements over mobile messagingservices, comprising: receiving a request from a user to subscribe to amobile alert service, wherein a content related to the mobile alertservice is provided to the user when an alert condition is met;detecting when the alert condition is met; generating a mobile messagewherein the mobile message comprises the content related to the mobilealert; retrieving an advertisement wherein the advertisement is relatedto the content; attaching the advertisement to the mobile message; andproviding the mobile message and the attached advertisement to the user.2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile alert service provides areal time information update.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the realtime information update comprises at least one of a stock quote, a newsheadline, or a sports score.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the alertcondition comprises a stock price threshold.
 5. The method of claim 1wherein the alert condition comprises a change in a score of a sportingevent.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the alert condition is met on aperiodic basis.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising verifyingthat a length of the mobile message does not exceed a maximum messagelength.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is attachedto a determined number of mobile messages over a period of time.
 9. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is targeted to a recipientof the mobile message.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein providing themobile message and the attached advertisement to the user furthercomprises communicating the mobile message to a mobile device of theuser.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile message comprises ashort message service message.
 12. The method of claim 1 whereinretrieving an advertisement further comprises retrieving anadvertisement using a client browser based targeting mechanism.
 13. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the advertisement comprises a link to a mobileweb page.
 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising determining if amobile device of the user is capable of displaying the mobile web page.15. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining a mobilenetwork operator of the user; and retrieving an advertisement related tothe content of the mobile message and targeted to the mobile networkoperator.
 16. A method for serving targeted advertisements over mobilemessaging services, comprising: receiving a request from a user toprovide a mobile message to the user via a mobile device when acondition is satisfied; determining that the condition is satisfied;determining a mobile network operator of the mobile device; retrievingan advertisement related to the mobile message and targeted to themobile network operator; attaching the advertisement to the mobilemessage; verifying that a length of the mobile message does not exceed amaximum message length; and providing the mobile message and theattached advertisement to the user on the mobile device.
 17. The methodof claim 16 wherein the mobile message is provided to the user over ashort messaging service.
 18. The method of claim 16 wherein providingthe mobile message and the attached advertisement to the user on themobile device comprises providing the mobile message and the attachedadvertisement to the mobile network operator of the mobile device. 19.The method of claim 16 further comprising determining the maximummessage length based on the mobile network operator.
 20. A system forserving targeted advertisements over mobile messaging services,comprising: a memory to store a content related to a mobile alertservice, the content provided to a user when an alert condition is met,and an advertisement; an interface operatively connected to the memory,the interface to communicate with the user; and a processor operativelyconnected to the memory and the interface, the processor for runninginstructions, wherein the processor receives a request from the user,via the interface, to subscribe to the mobile alert service, detectswhen the alert condition is met, generates a mobile message comprisingof the content, retrieves an advertisement related to the content,attaches the advertisement to the mobile message and provides the mobilemessage and the attached advertisement to the user via the interface.21. The system of claim 20 wherein the mobile alert service provides areal time information update.
 22. The system of claim 20 wherein thealert condition comprises a stock price threshold.
 23. The system ofclaim 20 wherein the alert condition comprises a change in a score of asporting event.
 24. The system of claim 20 wherein the processorverifies that a length of the mobile message does not exceed a maximummessage length.
 25. The method of claim 20 wherein the mobile messagecomprises a short message service message.